Routledge Narratives, Health, and Healing: Communication Theory, Research, and Practice (Routledge Communication Series)

This distinctive collection explores the use of narratives in the social construction of wellness and illness. Narratives, Health, and Healing emphasizes what the process of narrating accomplishes--how it serves in the health communication process where people define themselves and present their social and relational identities. Organized into four parts, the chapters included here examine health narratives in interpersonal relationships, organizations, and public fora. The editors provide an extensive introduction to weave together the various threads in the volume, highlight the approach and contribution of each chapter, and bring to the forefront the increasingly important role of narrative in health communication. This volume offers important insights on the role of narrative in communicating about health, and it will be of great interest to scholars and graduate students in health communication, health psychology, and public health. It is also relevant to medical, nursing, and allied health readers. Review "This book is noteworthy for the authors' rich, poignant narratives that integrate communication, health, and healing. Students will find it compelling and health communication scholars will find it theoretically grounded, provocative, and a welcome addition to the field of health communication."―Eileen Berlin RayCleveland State University "Bravo! Harter, Japp, and Beck have given us a volume that liberates the narrative study of health and healing from restrictive models of social research. This pioneering collection of essays and stories will undoubtedly define the field of qualitative health communication for the next generation. The narrative perspectives in this collection inspire and legitimize a distinctly human approach that brings new energy and vitality to the field by showing how stories of health and healing can be told, lived, heard, and understood. A huge hole in the literature of health communication has now been filled."―Art BochnerUniversity of South Florida "Editors Lynn Harter, Phyllis Japp, and Christina Beck, along with an outstanding array of chapter authors, have crafted a tight, engaging, and compelling volume. Individual chapters coalesce almost seamlessly to form a cohesive work that will appeal to many scholars, practitioners, and graduate students across health-related areas of inquiry and community outreach programs. Collectively, then, this edited volume reflects the cutting-edge in health communication thinking and research privileging the narrative paradigm."―Jim L. Query, Jr.University of Houston